Social Commentary with particular emphasis on style, parenting, relationships,education and smoking weed

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Fucking with The Now

Max the Psychic Life Coach has been helping me learn to meditate. I need to access my spirit so that I'm making choices for myself that are based on what's right for my soul as opposed to what I think I should be doing. Part of my homework for this week is reading The Power of Now by Eckhart Toile.

The good news is that I live in the Now all the time, especially at work. When you hang out with preschoolers, you come to understand fully and completely that past and future are absolutely irrelevant. Life is 100% about Now. The trouble for me comes when I have to deal with grown-ups and to try to live like a grown-up. Another thing I'm supposed to be examining as part of my homework is recognizing my gifts. We all have gifts - some people insist that we all have a thousand gifts. Apparently I can see other's gifts and beauty but rarely recognize my own. That can lead to trouble, too, especially when I'm determined to be compassionate about somebody who is inherently toxic.

There is a distinct parallel between learning how to go into the No-Mind Zone and that alcoholic prayer about accepting what you cannot change. It can be difficult to accept that a person you care about cannot or will not acknowledge that they are, in fact, a vortex of doom - but sooner or later, we have to accept there are people and things we cannot change and adjust ourselves accordingly.

The individuals in our lives are like little local issues, but there are bigger issues we have to accept as well - such as the world being so fucked up that all any generation can hope for is incremental progress.

Israel attacking that flotilla is an example of some major fucked up shit. Once the attack itself was over, the incident itself is in the past. All kinds of people will feel the ramifications of that attack, but what's done is done. Same with those American soldiers we all saw shooting Afghani citizens from their helicopter thanks to WikiLeaks. It sucked hard, but we cannot change the past, and we cannot know the future.

Of course, we all make choices in the Now that are based on our interpretation of the past which will influence the future. It's just that everything we say and do is in the present until it's been said or done. Then it's in the past. Namaste.

The trouble with the crack in the earth's surface underneath the Gulf of Mexico spewing toxic chemicals is that it won't go into the damn past. It keeps going and going and going in The Now. It's fucking up The Now so badly that every foreseeable Now for months will continue to be fucked up because nobody knows what to do in the Now.

I understand that we can all accept the fact that the earth is splitting wide open all because of corporate greed, consumerism, stupidity, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. We can still find beauty in the world and each other, live in the moment and all that stuff. No matter how Unacceptable the Deepwater Disaster is - What's done is done. The crack is there. The gulf is getting more toxic by the minute and there's nothing anybody can do about it. Maybe one day - but certainly not in The Now.

The world has been fucked up for thousands of years, and somehow humanity has managed to survive. I reckon we'll survive for thousands more years - and we'll get used to acid rain just like we got used to war and smog. People will still love each other in thousands of ways whether life as we know it continues or if we wind up banding together in tribes to live off what's left of the land - just like the Indigenous People we exterminated with those blankets contaminated with smallpox. I was reminded of those blankets when I read that the same trailers the government prohibited from being used as homes for Katrina's homeless on account of high levels of formaldehyde are now being sold to workers who are cleaning up after The Deepwater Disaster. The New York Times reports:

Ron Mason, owner of a disaster contracting firm, Alpha 1, said that in the past two weeks he had sold more than 20 of the trailers to cleanup workers and the companies that employ them in Venice and Grand Isle, La.

Even though federal regulators have said the trailers are not to be used for housing because of formaldehyde’s health risks, Mr. Mason said some of these workers had bought them so they could be together with their wives and children after work.

“These are perfectly good trailers,” Mr. Mason said, adding that he has leased land in and around Venice for 40 more trailers that are being delivered from Texas in the coming weeks. “Look, you know that new car smell? Well, that’s formaldehyde, too. The stuff is in everything. It’s not a big deal.”(NYT June 29, 2010)

Boudreax and Bubba are still in charge down on the Delta, and somebody somewhere is making a bundle.

7 comments:

Great post. It reminds me of an ongoing conversation I had with my father back in the day when my mind was young and his was getting old. Kids may live in the Now, but one of the things they think about and get excited about is "tomorrow". Taking a trip, an upcoming visit by Grandparents, a weekend spent in the woods, Summer vacation, Christmas, etc. To all the potential moments in the future, my father would always say, "Tomorrow never arrives. By the time it is tomorrow, it is Today."

Determined to prove him wrong, I would come up with whatever counter arguments I could at age 7 or 8. All of which he would shoot down through the logic acquired from having more years under his belt.

Finally one day I came up with, "Dad, tommorrow does arrive. Today is Yesterday's Tomorrow."

All he said was, "There ya go, you are finally thinking." And he smiled.

Unlike many, I have no faith in some supreme being seeing us through. If such an entity does exist, I more often than not imagine them in a voyeuristic role, detached and amused. No offense meant Granny, just my take.

"We are all headed for the same place. All there is to argue about is how we take the trip." Yeah, but man how we argue and kill each other over it. I've been assembling a post about the movie, "8: The Proposition" and it is shocking to me how much hate is in the Mormon Church and how much money they spent to control people who aren't even members of their church. Also, the ways they forced their members to donate to the cause was certainly not Christian.

I don't know if it's really true or not but I read some discussion about closing off that well in the gulf using an atomic bomb and that none other than Bill Clinton proposes this solution! The oil gushing in the gulf seas goes from terribly bad to downright fucking horrifying if you ask me.

Granny, I'm thinking we're fucked - for now anyway. The world will survive, for sure, but it's going to be a long time before we see a global shift toward The Matriarchy. MRMacrum, you inspired me.V.V. - don't get me started on hateful "Christians", Mormon or otherwise. I'm still befuddled over John Boehner arguing about the tanning tax with a straight (orange) face. Sheesh.Libs, I am aware that some people think it's a good idea to nuke to well, but I hadn't heard anything about Bill Clinton being behind the idea. That's some shit.Gail, this world needs more individuals embracing the Beauty. Each one, teach one.

The gulf is getting more toxic by the minute and there's nothing anybody can do about it. Maybe one day - but certainly not in The Now.

While I feel where Yellowdog Granny is coming from and feel the same way I figure Mother Earth Gaia will come to see us humans as needing serious culling. I like the way short sighted people claim they are planning for the future worrying over retirement funds while living a modern American life of willful destruction. At some point the Now is going to jump up and bite them and us on the ass.